Why Be Catholic?

http://www.catholicscomehome.org ^

[NKP_Vet]

Welcome to Catholics Come Home. We’re here to help you begin or continue your faith journey, so you can find true peace, happiness and purpose in life.

At Catholics Come Home, we are dedicated to presenting the honest truth about even very difficult subjects. We want to share with you the beautiful, historical and miraculous aspects of the Catholic Church. People who have taken the time to explore our site are surprised to find out that there is much more to Catholicism than they ever realized

[Country Gal]

With all due respect:
1) “Apostolic Succession - The Church has been in existence since Christ walked the earth, and the Bishop of Rome is in unbroken succesion with St. Peter.” - the Greek Orthodox church would disagree with you

2) “Universality” - I will agree with you on this
3) “The stance of the Church on the primary issues of the day, abortion, gay marriage, contraception, male priests.” Unfortunately, most parishioners don't take the teachings seriously, but just go through the ritual motions. My evidence would be the fact that Catholics are a huge voting bloc for the Democratic party.

4) “The Church heirarchy. Not voting on doctrine. Having an acknowledged head of world wide church. Authority of the magisterium.” - no point in debating this as I know it's strongly believed by Catholics that Peter was the first Pope. The Greek Orthodox, who also claim to be the people who were the first church, claim that the concept of the “Pope” was not introduced until centuries later. Of course, you will disagree with them and they will disagree with you and both will state their own evidence.

5) As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand.

[NCLaw441]

Thank you for that tribute to your father-in-law. I am not Catholic, but I appreciate how your f-i-l worked to find his faith. As I grow older I am coming to believe/understand that faith is not a simple choice from a religious menu. In fact, I don’t true faith can be simply chosen. It takes prayer, study and perhaps most important, “listening” for direction from God. I have to question the faith of those who have not gone through the searching process to find their faith.

The issue is summed up nicely for me in Ephesians 2:8— “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” My almost daily prayer is that God continue to give me faith and grace to believe and follow Him more closely.

[Tublecane]

People have been generally unresponsive, and now you’re lecturing me on being open to wherever answers lead me when I haven’t really got an answer, so nevermind. I’m outran the conversation.

[Tublecane]

Those are all good enough reasons. But how does one jump from general rational agreement to it being the Truth. I never was able to drum up religious feeling from mere rationalization, and certainly not exclusively for one creed. I don’t even like always to be a conservative, let alone pin my eternal fate, if I have one, to one religion.

Maybe I am so constructing the argument that the only answer is the “leap of faith.”

[longfellowsmuse]

the focus on Christ in the mass is the eucharist as catholics believe that the eucharist is the actually body and blood of Jesus.

the eucharist is the reason for the mass...not the homily or the music or the prayers to the saints....it’s hard to imagine how you can be more Christ focused than that.

[longfellowsmuse]

if you are honestly looking for an answer on how to find God in a spiritual sense
perhaps you could pray.. an honest and earnest prayer to God to help you find Him....and I don’t mean a prayer that needs to be memorized...just a conversation from the heart.

perhaps easier than answering why be catholic the question is why believe in God? why not try talking to him and see what happens...if nothing then you have lost nothing

I also happen to think that perhaps in addition to the rational answers you have received many people have come to the catholic church through much prayer.

Sorry if you have taken offense... none was meant

[A.A. Cunningham]

- the Greek Orthodox church would disagree with you

Which is why they are in schism. You might ask them why Constantinople is now called Istanbul.

5) As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand.(sic)

Obviously you aren't paying attention, particularly during the Gloria, the Creed, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, et al. However, admitting that you don't understand is the first step on the journey to achieving understanding.

[mc5cents]

As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand.

I would suggest that you look more deeply than what you hear at a Mass. It is a liturgy and has many aspects but the central focus comes down to the "sacrifice" of the Mass, i.e. Jesus gave his body and blood for our redemption. A gift from God the Father. Christ is the single focus of the Sacrifice of the Mass. Look into it.

[Mrs. Don-o]

That would make total sense if "pray" were a synonym for "adore". But it's not.

Have a good day --- I pray you.

[Jack of all Trades]

I’ve been asking myself that a lot over the last few years. Raised a Methodist, I married a Catholic, been going to mass regularly for 20 years. About five years ago I decided to convert for most of the usual reasons: the universality, history and authority of the Church, plus we are raising our kids Catholic and I want to be a good example.

I’ve found it impossible to assimilate the core doctrines of the Church, primarily the nature of the Eucharist, the reverence for Mary and the saints, and the status of women. One good thing that came of it is that it gave me an interest in reading the Bible.

[tiki]

I don’t think I’m the one to tell you that but....

I was raised Methodist, so I always had religion in my life but I can tell you that my family has a fanatical Baptist, a hot and cold, social-type Christian, very liberal who believes what she wants to according to her mood, a very liberal athiest, a so-so Methodist who is just now converting to Catholicism and myself who converted in 2000.

I quit going to church in my 20s because all I could see was the “Methodist Social Club”. I still wanted to know the truth and I studied the Bible like crazy but (I didn’t realize this until later) I was using it like Protestants use it, almost as a measure of my feelings at any given time. Passages meant what I thought they meant.

My first step towards Catholicism was a lie and mean and spiteful. My husband’s aunt was a left wing Methodist and it seemed like her religion was all political, what I know as social justice now. Just to shut her up I told her I was thinking about becoming a Catholic. I laugh now because I’m sure God already knew. I was ashamed at myself for lying to her and told my husband who just laughed at me.

Long story short several years after that horrid, snotty lie I started asking questions of Catholics, like “Why do you worship Mary?” Real original, I know. I was amazed and sometimes disgusted when they couldn’t answer my questions but I had one friend who got so sick of me asking and her not knowing that she went to a priest for the answers.

I spent years reading and researching after that. My heart wasn’t in it but my intellect was. So much of my ignorance was dispelled and it actually started making sense, at last.

So what I would say, but coming from a foundation of Protestantism and converting to Catholicism, is the Truth is there. The Catholic Church knows it and when you find it you can’t turn away.

As a Catholic, in the times when I don’t have that euphoric feeling, or I’m down or even high, I understand that it isn’t all about me and my feelings because I know the Foundation of Christ and of the Church. It can be known by human reason. Yes, faith is a must but doing God’s will isn’t always rewarding at the time you are presented with the choice but always you see that hard choice got you where you are.

Faith comes from God but it never hurts to open the door and invite Him to show you the Truth. You can always reject it.

[tiki]

Could you give me some examples of how the Mass is not focused on Christ?

[NKP_Vet]

I was a baptist for 58 years. A devout baptist. I went to church regularly and the services usually consistently of some character ranting and raving and beating his fist on the Bible for a couple of hours, and saying you were going to hell if you didn’t change your ways. He sounded exactly like the used car salesmen in town. Then the collection basket would come around. End of service. I always knew that Christianity had to be more than some man hollering at you for two hours.

Then I found the truth of the Christian faith. The Catholic Church. The sacraments, the liturgy, it was what I had been loooking for my entire life. I just wish I had found the Church when was I younger. What a revelation it has been for me. I was also told it was not easy being a Catholic. Things would be required of me. I was told I would be put down by other faiths, but not to worry, because Jesus said if he was persecuted then we would also be persecuted. If someone hated me, then they had hated Him before me. All of this is true. To be a Catholic is to be persecuted. I feel sorry for protestants. Mainly for not having the Eucharist. God meant for there to be one Church, not the Catholic Church, and 40,000 protestant “churches”. I often wonder what they are still protesting.

[tiki]

Part of my conversion was a challenge to God. I was feeling guilty one day and I literally yelled out, “God, if you want me in church you are going to have make me.”

I didn’t want to “waste” all that time in church, I didn’t really want to associate with all those hypocrites either. God has His ways.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Hey Country gal: those are interesting responses, and if I may respond right back:

1) "Apostolic Succession" - having worshipped with Russian and Antiochian Orthodox for 10 years (while still being Catholic) I think it's fairer to say that you'll get a range of opinion about that amongst the Orthodox. Most that I've read, agree that the Catholic apostolic succession is unbroken and valid, bu would disagree about what a legitimate "Petrine ministry" would actually consist of. It's a church governance question, a structural one and not one of theological doctrine.

3) "The stance of the Church on the primary issues of the day... abortion, gay marriage, contraception, male priests." Here's were we ARE talking about doctrine, and the doctrine is unchanging. Whether "most parishioners" take it seriously or not, those who deviate from these doctrines deviate from Catholicism: they can't be taken to "represent" Catholicism if they don't adhere to it. That would be like saying "most" of the Apostles and His many disciples deserted Our Lord on Good Friday, therefore Christ's Church was a failure. No. It was just marred (as always) by the failings of sinful men.

As for the "huge Democratic voting bloc": Catholics --- and this is shameful --- on the whole voted for Obama in almost exactly the same percentages as all American voters, taken as a whole. That is, they went for Obama by a couple of percentage points. If you break that down, you see that regular Mass-goers went for Romney, non-Mass-goers went for Obama, and a number nearly equal to both didn't vote at all. Just like the millions f eligible Americans who did not vote. Very sad, in fact crushingly disappointing, but not a distinctively Catholic phenomenon.

5)"As a non-Catholic who has attending Mass, I see much less focus on Christ in these services than I do in evangelical services. Attention seems to be shared with the Holy Mother, the Saints, and some other things that I don't understand."

This is actually an inaccurate understanding, but perhaps I can clarify some of it for you.

(1) The whole Mass has just 2 basic parts, the Liturgy of the Word (the readings at the lectern) and the Liturgy of the Eucharist (what happens at the altar).

(2) The WHOLE Liturgy of the Word is about Christ,since the whole Bible is about Christ (as Jesus Christi Himself explained to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, (Luke 24:27)

(3) They WHOLE Liturgy of the Eucharist is about Christ, since it is the action of Christ Himself. Christ is the High Priest whose central saving action is the offering of Himself as a sacrifice to His Father. This is what the Liturgy is, and nothing else. Its action is HIS action.

(4) Mary is mentioned only one time in most Masses, and that is only if the "I confess to Almighty God" is recited, in which it says

"Therefore I ask Blessed Mary ever-Virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you,
my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me
to the Lord our God."

In other words, her name is mentioned ONCE, and only because she, the angels and saints, and YOU, are being asked to pray TO GOD for all sinners.

Does this make a bit more sense?

[sitetest]

Dear Tublecane,

I think I told you how. Reading, prayer, travel.

sitetest

[sitetest]

Thanks.

[Las Vegas Dave]

I converted so that we could be remarried in the Roman Catholic Church,(I was ELCA).

And as someone posted, I want to be there and have to nudge my wife, “not to be late..”!

[Country Gal]

No reason to insult me. I was paying attention because I want to understand. But, unfortunately, any time I say that I don’t understand what is happening at Mass, Catholics insult me. “You’re not paying attention” is just one example. I’ve also heard “I’m only going to explain this once, so please try to listen”, “Maybe when you’re older and a bit more wiser you’ll get it”. Always insults. I think that’s what turns me off the most about most Catholics. Jesus wouldn’t insult me.

[Country Gal]

Yes. I thank you for your kind response.